Hollis Bredeweg

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Dated

On a walk yesterday, Sally and I noticed that the house on South Martin Street was on the market. For those who might ask, "Which house?", I'm tempted to say THE house. It's the octagonal house on the high, rocky lot just south of the elementary school and Presbyterian Church. You know, THE house. I have loved walking by this house, with its unique shape, 360 degree glass, and fabulous setting, ever since we moved to Spokane. Now it's on the market, offered at $483,000. I know $483,000 isn't all that much in Seattle dollars, but this is Spokane! That's nearly three times what we paid for our house just 10 blocks away.

Sally and I took a sale flyer with us, eager to take a virtual tour of the house or find information about an upcoming showing. Instead we viewed the photos on the website (www.HollieSmithHomes.com - It's listed as "Contemporary S. Hill on .7 Acres"). To our amazement, the interior photos reminded us a lot of our house, before we engaged in a whole series of remodeling projects. The kitchen cabinets look a lot like those we're wondering what to do with now. The tile on the vanity and floor of the master bathroom look worse than ours. We talked about all those windows, installed in the mid-1960's, and how difficult and expensive it would be to update them to Low E glass.

When we bought our home in 2004, the realtor told us that it had been on the market for quite a while because potential buyers found it "dated". From my peasant roots perspective, calling a house "dated" seemed just plain snooty, like looking down your nose at someone for wearing last year's suit.

We aren't in the market for a new house. We're really enjoying our modest home, even as we remodel it one room at a time. It's probably a good thing, for at $483,000, THE house is way out of our price range. Thankfully, the photos of the interior have blessed us with a reason not to covet it. Like the fox disdaining the grapes in Aesop's fable, we look at the photos of THE house on South Martin, and sniff, "It's dated".